A progression of cellular communications protocols have been created to improve cellular communications performance. These protocols and architecture have been developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), which comprises a group of telecommunications associations that collectively develop the rules and standards used to implement cellular communications protocols. For example, the 3GPP has created a progression of cellular communications standards or protocols including a 2G cellular communications protocol, such as EDGE, a 3G cellular communications protocol including UMTS, and 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) cellular communications protocols.
The evolving cellular communications protocols are aimed at improving cellular communications performance. For example, the evolution of cellular communications protocols has progressively increased data transmission speeds. 3G UMTS cellular protocols support download speeds ranging from 7-14 Mbits/s while 4G LTE supports download rates as high as 300 Mbits/s. An increasing number of users communicating via wireless carrier systems using cellular communications protocols as well as the data-rich content of high-definition video has spurred the creation of cellular protocols supporting ever higher data transmission rates. Traditionally, the cellular communications protocols have been carried out over licensed frequency bands privately-controlled by one or more wireless carrier systems. However, cellular communication protocols are evolving in a way that they can be carried out in other ways.